e average in 1903
being 66.1, whereas in 1895 it was 65.3.

(See also the article AGRICULTURE.)

[Illustration: Map of ENGLAND & WALES--Section IV.]

Sea fisheries.

_Fisheries._--All the seas round Britain are rich in fish, and there
are important fishing stations at intervals on all the English coasts,
but those on the east coast are by far the most numerous. On an
estimate of weight and value of the fish landed, Grimsby at the mouth
of the Humber in Lincolnshire, stands pre-eminent as a fishing port.
For example, the fish landed there in 1903 were of nearly four times
the value of those landed at Hull, which was the second in order of
all the English stations. Next in importance stand Lowestoft, Yarmouth
and North Shields, Boston and Scarborough, and, among a large number
of minor fishing stations, Hartlepool and Ramsgate. Great quantities
of fish are also landed at the riverside market of Billingsgate in
London, but the conditions here are exceptional, the landings being
effected by carrier steamers, plying from certain of the fishing
fleets, and not taking part in the actual process of fishing. On the
south coast Newlyn ranks in the same category with Boston; at Plymouth
considerable catches are landed; and Brixham ranks alongside the last
ports named on the east coast. The chief fishing centres of the
English Channel are thus seen to belong to the coast of Devonshire and
Cornwall. On the west coast the Welsh port of Milford takes the first
place, while Swansea and Cardiff have a considerable fishing industry,
surpassed, however, by that of Fleetwood in Lancashire. Liverpool also
ranks among the more important centres. As a comparison of the
production of the east, south and west coast fisheries, an average may
be taken of the annual catches recorded over a term of years. In the
ten years 1894-1903 this average was 6,985,588 cwt. for the east coast
stations, 669,759 cwt. for those of the south coast, and 884,932 for
those of the west (including the Welsh stations).

Distinctions may be drawn, as will be seen, between the nature and
methods of the fisheries on the various coasts, and the relative
prosperity of the industry from year to year cannot be considered as a
whole. Thus in the period considered the recorded maximum weight of
fish landed at the east coast ports was 9,539,114 cwt. in 1903 (the
value being returned as L5,721,105)